Have We Met?
by Red Quadrant
Summary: Karkat and Eridan were once Karina and Edward, long ago, sadly their love came to an end when a witch does anything in her power to separate the two, because of Edward running off, leaving Feferi alone. Turns out the two lovers find each other when 19 year old Karkat moves to New Jersey. Will there be a happy ending, or will it be another win for the The Condese?
1. Prologue

Have We Met?

 **For those who ship Erikar, I will try to make Eridan as in character as I possibly can, but I apologize in advance if he seems slightly OOC. I will say that this is a fanfiction that takes place in the 1800's and present day (as mentioned before). Italized is the stuff going on in the 1800's. Karkat is only female in the 1800's and his name in the 1800's is Karina and of course in the present it's Karkat. Eridan's past name is Edward, and if I hafe left anything out I will be sure to add in the next chapter. I will try to update every week, the amount of times I update in that week will vary! I will be introducing bit by bit of the story from the 1800's so you kind of have two parts to keep up with, don't worry, I won't make it too difficult!**

 **Prologue**

 _The sound of the violin was so majestic. It was like she was dancing on clouds. Her mind was relaxed as she listened to the soothing sound of the orchestra playing. It was her 16_ _th_ _birthday, and Karina's father wanted to throw her a party which involved dancing and men who could potentially become her husband. Of course, Karina thought this was very ignorant. She wanted to be married to someone she actually loved, not someone who was a complete stranger to her._

* * *

 _It was an early summer morning, and the first thing Karina hears is, "What are you still doing in bed m'lady, you're father expects you to be bathed and dressed to have breakfast soon." How dreadful, who wanted to wake up at the crack of dawn? Seriously. No one willingly wakes up that early unless they're excited about something. Thus, Karina had to get up as told. She knew it wasn't her maids fault, if anything, her maid most likely would have let her sleep in. Sadly, it was her father's wishes that she'd be up and down in a few minutes._

" _Aurgh, remind me again why we have to listen to him." The short brunette asked in a whining tone._

" _Because your father is of high class and expects his daughter to meet his requirements." The maid responded as if she had memorized that saying long ago._

" _It just isn't fair, it's Saturday morning. We should be sleeping in, not waking up before the damn birds." Karina was least amused to the fact that she was up well before there was even any daylight in the sky. Looking out, she could see it was stil l pitch black._

" _Please ma'dam watch your language; I know you don't like it, but we cannot go against your father."_

 _That was an understatement. Through out the process of getting ready to meet her father, Karina thought of the possibilities that could happen later this evening. Today was her 16_ _th_ _birthday, and her father had planned a huge ball for her. She had a dress and everything needed for the occasion. Turns out her father invited just about every male within 100 miles of the city. Apparently she was to choose a husband. Hooray.._

 _Once Karina was presented to her father, she sat in the chair beside him. He spoke of things that were to be done at the ball, how she was to dance with as many men as possible before they came before her and told her father about themselves and what they could offer. How absolutely wonderful, nothing like spending time dancing with complete strangers then having her father judge them._

 _All she could do was nod though, as the maid said before, she could not go against her father, it was impossible. After the talk with her father, she walked to her room where she was to wait to be called for her morning dance lessons. She, honestly, was furious. Her father knew all she wanted was to find true love, not that fake bullshit people lied about just for money. She wanted the_ _ **real**_ _deal._

 _It just wasn't fair._

 _Once finishing her dance lessons and returning to her room, Karina saw her trusted and beloved maid waiting. Sadly, the elderly woman was waiting to dress Karkat for the dance the young female was dreading. As the woman began to strip her, Karina took the opportunity to ask a question._

 _"Do you believe in true love?" Karina held onto the footboard of her bed while the older woman tightened her corset, god she hated these things._

 _"Well," the maid hesitated before humming a little, "I suppose there could be someone out there for anyone, why do you ask Miss?"_

 _"Do you think I will ever find my true love?" Karina asked, looking down as she thought. Was there even such a person out there for her? If so, would she ever find him? Those were the two major questions she always asked herself._

 _"I cannot say ma'dam."_

 _The best thing about the maid was that she would never tell you anything she sought to be untrue. Unfortunately, this also disappointed Karina. She wanted to know, was there someone special out there for her? If there is, who is it and would she ever meet him?_ Withou _t another word, only giving small grunts due to the corset, Karina thought to herself. Maybe tonight could be here night. If not though, that meant she had a possibility of having no choice but to marry aa total stranger._

 _Why did her life have to be so complex. Why did love have to be so hard to find? Why did there have to be so many obstacles in such short amount of time? She honestly couldn't hate anything more than this date. She had to have a soulmate, and he had to be at this party. For her sake, he just had to be. The last thing Karina wanted was to live her life in utter misery because she failed to find the one perosn who could make her life worth something._

 _One question really popped out to her though, how was she suppose to know if the guy was her true love? It's not like he was going to come over to her and say 'hey, I'm your soulmate.' This was going to be a lot of work in one day._


	2. Chapter 1: Moving Day

Chapter 1: Moving Day

Finally, the day has come. Karkat Vantas was finally going to move out of his father's house. In fact, he was moving out of this shitty town altogether. Once he packed his last box, he said bye to his dad and got into the car, started it up, and drove off. One could not say how happy Karkat was. Ever since his mother died, his father was never the same. He drank a lot and had a lot of anger he had been holding back, those two were never a good combination.

So, Karkat vowed that once he turned 16 he would get a job and save up his money. He saved up all the way to the age of 19. He had his license; he had a car; he had money. All the essentials to moving out. So at the age of 19, Karkat packed up and was now on the road to New Jersey. He knew nothing of the state, but it was far from his father.

Karkat was also one of those who sung in the car. Once a favored song would come on, you could bet your ass he sung to it. His drive to New Jersey was ten hours, counting the pee breaks, the eating and any other obstacle. He was about 150 miles from the city he had decided on living in, but he was also about to pass out at the wheel. So, Karkat pulled into a hotel and decided to spend the night there.

Booking a room and taking some luggage into the room, Karkat took a shower and changed into boxers and a t-shirt before he plopped onto the bed and passed out. At eight in the morning, Karkat woke up and stretched. The growl of his stomach hinted that he was definitely hungry. The Cancer went down to the main lobby and started to get some food from the continental breakfast they had offered.

After getting his food and eating, he decided it would be best if he just checked out and went on to drive the rest of the way until waiting any longer. He had to admit, he was rather excited to be living on his own now. Once piling his stuff into the car, he got in and drove off. Using his GPS for directions on how to get to the apartment complex, he got there within roughly an hour. Since he had already called and talked to the people about renting an apartment, all he had to do was go in there, fill out the paper work and talk to them a little bit before he was given his keys and apartment number.

He looked around, finally finding number 69, he parked the car and started to grab some boxes. As of now, he just placed the boxes on the floor, but made sure he had room to get around. Seeing as he has a furnished apartment, he didn't have to worry about going out to buy a mattress (but he definitely disinfected the mattress.)

On his last round of retrieving his belongings, Karkat was a bit blinded due to the three boxes stacked on top of each other. The Vantas began to walk to his apartment room, just before he bumped into someone.

"Shit, sorry." The 5'4" male blurted out, almost stumbling back.

"W-watch w-where you're going."

Karkat had no clue as to what the guy looked like, but the attitude the guy had was surely going to get him punched in the face. Once Karkat turned to see as to who spoke, he was greeted to no one. Well, other then the back of some guy who looked too rich to live in these apartments.

"Fuck you too, douchewad." Karkat grumbled under his breath before placing the last few boxes onto the floor and sighed. Now, time to un pack…

This was going to take forever.

Box by box, Karkat unpacked as much as he could. Luckily, he didn't own many things. He had about three and a half boxes left to unpack, but those could wait. He at least had the necessities for the rest of the night. Of course by now, Karkat was hungry again. It was 8:34 P.m after all. He grabbed his laptop and looked up some restaurants in the area. Once he saw a Chinese take out place, he was automatically loving this place already.

Karkat ordered a thing of sweet and sour chicken along with chicken mien. He waited about 30-35 minutes before he heard the knock on the door. Licking his lips, he got up and opened the door. He saw the delivery guy, paid him the money before he took his food and thanked the guy. Before he could close the door and enjoy the rest of this peaceful night, he heard someone call out.

"Hey!" Karkat turned and saw it was a guy around his height with glasses and buck teeth. Fuuuck, what did he want.

"Uh, hey?" Karkat said, trying to inch his way into his new home to close the door. Unfortunately, the stranger came up to him.

"Are you my new neighbor? My friend said someone ran into him, so we figured you must be new to the area. I'm John!" The male known as John, stuck his hand out for Karkat to take. Huffing, Karkat took the hand.

"Wait, that snotty rats ass smelling shithole is your friend?" Karkat didn't know what he did to piss the guy off, it wasn't like he meant to bump into him.

" Aha, yeah. Don't let him get to you though! He's always like that, even to me and I've known him for about three years." John said as Karkat shrugged and nodded.

"Well, it's not like I'll be seeing him around again, so luckily I won't have to worry about it. Now, as much as I'd love to chat, my food is getting cold." Karkat took another step back to close the door.

"Oh, heh, right. Well it was nice to meet you." John waved his farewell as soon as Karkat slammed the door shut.

Okay, the housing and food was a plus, the people, well they were a negative. All in all, this place was pretty great. As long as Karkat didn't run into John or his asshole of a friend.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The previous night was actually better then Karkat thought. His food was great and he stayed up all night watching a few romantic comedies from his huge ass collection. All in all, the night was pretty nice. Shockingly, he slept peacefully through the night and woke up at about 11:15 a.m. the next morning. Frankly, it was the best night ever in his book. Rubbing his eyes, Karkat let out a groan before he yawned and looked at his phone. He had a few messages from some friends he sadly has to leave behind, like Kanaya, who was one of his best friends, and Sollux. One was the motherly figure and the other was like a natural born asslicker with a gift of being able to hack and program computer shit.

He messaged Kanaya back, telling her he was okay and just woke up. The messaging went back and forth for a while before he grunted as he got up and decided maybe it was time for him to take a shower. Scratching his head a little, he groaned, still feeling a little groggy before he actually got up and went to his bathroom. He still wasn't quite use to living alone, but that didn't he didn't like it. He actually loved it. It was quiet, unless you could the TV he would have on at times when watching something, and it was violence free.

As Karkat showered, he started to think of something he could possibly do after he unpacked everything. Maybe he could look online to see what type of places were here. It seemed like that's he would have to do for a while since he wasn't familiar with the place, or maybe he could go out for a drive and look around that way. Though the possibility of getting lost was like 1,000 to one. He did have his GPS though, but he still didn't want to risk getting lost in this city. Once he got out of the shower, dried off and got dressed, he went into the living room and started to surf the internet for places he could go to. Well, there was a café near by, that was a plus. There was a park, a mall, a bakery, a skating rink and a pool and more. Wow, okay, so he had a lot of options.

With a hum and a tap to the chin, Karkat chewed on his lip before settling on going to the café. Maybe that had great coffee. The Cancer put his shoes on and grabbed his keys before he went out the door. Soon he was sitting in the local café, sipping on a mocha frappé and gazing outside. It almost seemed like it was going to rain. His eyes wandered around, looking at some of the signs and made a 'hmph' sound. Wait... He squinted over to the circular object he saw in the background. Was that a Ferris wheel? Maybe he could go check that out sometime.

Seeing as he was getting bored with just sitting there, he got up and decided to go for a small walk. Today wasn't his day though, because as soon as he took on step, he bumped right into someone, spilling his frappé all over his shirt. He growled under his breath before he looked up, crushing the cup in his hand. This asshole again?

"Watch where you're going shitfucker." Karkat said, sort of mocking the guy he had bumped into for the second time. The guy looked like a grade A fucking hipster. The purple strip in his hair and the square glasses, it said it all. Not to mention, the way he seemed to carry himself around. Karkat doesn't even to know the guy to see how he held his head high as if everyone below him were nothing. It aggravated Karkat so much because he found it to be so ignorant.

"W-well you're so fucking short, I didn't see you. You're like a cockroach trying to av-void death." The hipster made a face as he looked at the mess on Karkat's shirt, probably glad none of it got on him.

All Karkat could do was glare at the male. So what if he was short? He also had a temper if the dick would rather see that. Well, so much for going for a walk. Instead of counting and starting even more bullshit, Karkat just took a deep breath and walked out. During the years, Karkat's always had to deal with anger management shit. Now that he was a bit more mature, he was learning to cope with the anger by taking deep breaths or, sometimes, using a stress ball.

By the time Karkat arrived to his apartment and changed into a new shirt, there was a knock at the door. He already had a feeling he knew who it was. Once he went to open it, a small groan escaped his lips. Yep, it was exactly who he thought. It was that John guy.

"Hey! I was wondering if you were doing anything later tonight?" John's peppy-like voice made Karkat's ears ring

"No, why? What's tonight?" Karkat didn't know what had possessed him of asking why, but to late now.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the fair. It's only in town for two more days before they pack up and leave. If you want to come, I can meet you at six!" the smile on John's face and hope in his eyes made it hard for the Vantas to say no.

"Fine, I'll go."

* * *

 _When the time came for the party to start, Karina stood on the stairwell, looking down at her father just before she began to step down. One step at a time she finally reached her father, who was waiting to take her to the ballroom, which was full of people. Her father stuck his arm out so he could escort her to the ballroom. Growing nervous, Karina wished nothing but for this night to end._

 _As soon as the doors opened, the music filled her ears. The violin sounded so pleasant. Her eyes scanned across the room. There were crowds of people. She knew they were just waiting for their chance to try to win her over. Luckily, Karina's face wasn't exactly a popular one. Though she was beautiful, she always tried to keep to herself, which meant not many people knew of what Karina Vander looked like._

 _Once her father gave her the nod, he seemed to vanish. She was on her own now. Great, just what she wanted. Although she was hoping she would be left to herself in her room, where it was quiet and she didn't have to try to impress anyone._

 _Soon the elegant lady in the crimson ball gown, walked through the crowd. Despite everyone not knowing who she was, she still felt as if they could sense that she was the daughter of the infamous Mr. Vander._

 _The music seemed to pick up just a little bit. At that time, Karina noticed someone staring directly at her. She felt chills run down her spine and the hairs on her arms stood straight up. The male started to walk over, and in all honestly, he was pretty handsome. Though, that didn't mean she was going to make him her husband._

" _You look a little lost." The strange, yet attractive man said as he approached Karina._

" _I just got here, I couldn't help but wonder what the young Vander looks like." She said, trying to keep her identity anonymous._

" _Well, would you care to dance? Maybe you could find her. I'm sure she's out dancing. I heard she's not only a beauty, but an excellent dancer."_

 _With that said, Karina couldn't help but agree to the dance. Besides, the music had a great tempo. Before too long, the two were dancing, their right hands together, her left hand on his shoulder while his was on her small waist._

" _What's your name?" She asked, wanting to be able to address the guy properly._

" _Edward," he gave a smile, his eyes sparkling from the light hitting them, "do you want to give me a fake name, or am I allowed to call you Miss. Vander?"_

 _The comment caught the 16 year old off guard. She blinked before smiling. "No, I'd prefer you to call me Karina."_


End file.
